Theos-Talk Archives (December 1998 Message tt00077)

Emptiness


Just how important is emptiness?

"If there is one teaching that is peculiar to Buddhism alone among all the world’s religions, I would say it is the principle of Sunyata (Voidness or Emptiness)." (Garma C. C. Chang, The Buddhist Teaching of Totality: The Philosophy of Hwa Yen Buddhism, Shambala, 1971, p 60)

Is it dangerous?

"Nagarjuna warned that emptiness misunderstood is as dangerous as a snake held by an inexperienced snake-handler." (preface to Path to the Middle: Oral Madhyamika Philosophy in Tibet, SUNY, 1994, p. xix). 

When should we begin to perceive it?

"The first direct cognition of emptiness is one of the great transitions of the Buddhist path. It marks the end of one’s career as an "ordinary" person and the beginning of one’s life as a Superior or aryan practitioner. It marks also the move from a conventional to an ultimate Bodhisattva intention. Prior to this movement one has sought enlightenment for the sake of all but has not yet fully understood the emptiness that makes this possible. This initial direct cognition of emptiness is the first of the ten Bodhisattva grounds." (Path to the Middle, introduction, p 12).

This quote suggests that the Bodhisattva path begins with the direct experience of emptiness. Is it objective or subjective?

"Emptiness is called a highest or ultimate truth because it is an object of the highest type of consciousness." (Path to the Middle, p.99)


>From the above, it seems to me that emptiness is the objective "world" that is seen at high spiritual levels of consciousness. In other words, when consciousness rises to spirituality, we are in a subjective state of samadhi (often called bliss in Buddhism) and an objective state of emptiness.

According to HH the Dali Lama (Commentary to The Kalachakra Tantra, Wisdom Pub. 1989) emptiness comes in two main degrees: unaspected emptiness ("the emptiness of inherent existence" p. 211) and aspected emptiness, which "refers to empty forms."

Interestingly samadhi also has two main degrees: savitarka, with form, and nirvatara, without form (see Taimni, The Science of Yoga, Quest, 1975).

It could be that the two degrees of samadhi and emptiness go together. However, they also may not because, Chang (p. 51) for one, points out that samadhi as defined in Hindu yoga is not defined the same way in Hwa Yen.

It seems curious to me that while emptiness or sunyata is such an important concept in Buddhism, it is hardly mentioned in Theosophy.

Jerry S